Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Sleepwalking by Meg Wolitzer

9 reviews

savvylit's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A

2.0

The good: relatively well written and empathetic towards very specific new adult feelings of anxiety and depression.

The bad: I found the book boring and naive. Mostly because I am certainly not the target audience at all. To begin, the initial trio of girls obsessed with death were full of intrigue. But Claire left the other "death girls" behind so quickly. Additionally, I didn't realize quite how young this entire book would feel. Wolitzer was twenty-one when she published Sleepwalking and it shows. I think I might have enjoyed this when I was somewhere around that same age. At 32, though, Sleepwalking just seemed like a shallow story striving too hard for meaning. I've read much better debuts by young authors.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, and Grief

hunkydory's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Self harm, Death, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Child death

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Medical content, and Drug use

charlieeeeeeee's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Quietly beautiful; emotionally hefty. Wolitzer has a keen sense of real feeling in what feels like a fleeting moment of intense yet subtle intimacy, like that in the delicate, meticulous strokes of a painting or in a glance between two strangers in a crowd. With this novel comes the deeply intense moment of realization that you cannot change or fix grief and trauma and mental illness, whether that be your own or someone else’s. Here is an indelible meditation on art, how we make it, how we use it, and why we (try to) do any of it. Essentially, Sleepwalking manages to craft a delicately brief portrait of life—specifically these particular lives—which is what attracts me most to the art we create, and Meg Wolitzer does this with such a perfected, poetic aura of realist naturalism that leaves you almost bereaved when you reach the final page.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Mental illness, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Terminal illness

Minor: Domestic abuse

pippawig's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Suicide

paigemushaw's review against another edition

reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Child death

solasuaine's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Self harm, and Mental illness

itsmycah's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Cancer, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Domestic abuse and Sexual content

lucyrosemack's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Terminal illness

Minor: Domestic abuse and Drug use

catluvr's review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide, and Grief

Moderate: Death, Terminal illness, and Suicidal thoughts